'I had heart attack after £285k William Hill error'

A man who won £285,000 on an online casino game only to find the payout was due to a technical glitch at bookmakers William Hill said the stress had caused him to suffer a heart attack.

John Riding hit the jackpot while gambling on his phone on 16 March, with the manager at his local betting shop confirming his win soon afterwards.

But the 76-year-old's joy turned to despair when the cash was withdrawn from his betting account after a William Hill spokesman said "incorrect sums" had been credited to the games' players.

John, from Burnley in Lancashire, who returned home from hospital earlier, said: "It just absolutely destroyed me and I just went off balance and had a resulting heart attack."

He added: "When you're ecstatic and then you get flattened, it's like being hit with a sledgehammer because your mind goes berserk.

"You're planning things. Your most important thing is your family."

John said the £285,000 had been deposited in his betting account and he immediately decided to transfer some of the payment to his bank account.

"I pressed withdraw and it blocked me," he said.

"It wouldn't let me enter my password or anything. It just blocked me out of my account and I haven't got it back since."

A day later, William Hill emailed to inform him they had adjusted his betting account to take the winnings back and had put £15.40 into it "like some kind of refund", his son Adam added.

"That's bizarre because what is that money for? If no win happened, why did they put that back in the account?," he said.

He said his father rang the firm several times but "the line just kept going dead and then I got through to speak to somebody and they said they couldn't deal with it".

Adam added: "They said he had to sort it online through his account but he couldn't log on to his account, so he couldn't."

John, who does not drink or smoke, said: "After several days of not being able to talk to anybody - not being able to get anything resolved whatsoever - I came up to bed and felt really unwell, which resulted in an admission to hospital via ambulance with a heart attack."

Adam said: "It was such a horrific week. We spent 18 hours in a resuscitation ward and we genuinely thought he wasn't going to pull through."

After nearly a week at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, his father credited the medical staff as "absolutely wonderful" and said he "cannot fault them whatsoever".

"The compassion and everything they showed was well beyond the extra mile," he said.

Adam said he believed the betting game was "not fit for purpose", adding: "Surely it should have been tested and gone through checks of having these apparent glitches before it's put out into the public domain for people to play."

William Hill said the company was "very sorry to hear about Mr Riding's condition and wish him a very speedy recovery".

"During a routine review of platform activity, we identified an issue affecting the Jackpot Drop game which temporarily resulted in incorrect sums being credited to players' balances," the bookmaker added.

"While we quickly identified and resolved this issue, for a short period of time funds were erroneously credited to some customer accounts that were not correctly generated through valid or properly functioning game-play."

John said he felt that William Hill "should have some sort of moral compass and sort this thing out amicably and honour the win".

"They can't just ignore it and say tough luck, and there's an admission of it being won, because it went into my account," he said.

Solicitor Paul Kanolik, of Ellis Jones Solicitors, said "many" people had been in touch for advice following similar withdrawn jackpot winnings and the firm was "looking at pursuing claims in relation to these issues, potentially on a group action basis".

"William Hill/888 Casino are seeking to rely on their terms and conditions in voiding jackpot wins and in clawing back monies from customers who have been paid out," he said.

"The case law shows that a betting operator may not always be able to rely on their terms and conditions in such circumstances."

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.